Our little boy, Bronson was diagnosed with Stage 4S Bilateral Adrenal Neuroblastoma. He is currently at SickKids in Toronto being treated. Through the grace of God and power of medicine we are believing that he will beat the odds and come home soon.
You can also follow @ journeyagainstneuroblastoma.blogspot.com & facebook.com/babybronson

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Sunday, 29 May 2011

May 14th - Preach to me

May 14th - 2:24pm Preach to me.

Four years ago I lay in a bed at Princess Margaret Hospital. It had been such a whirlwind of information, appointments and meetings that before I knew it I was watching the nurse hook up the I.V. with the chemo now running in my system. It seemed surreal and hard to take in. “Was this really happening now?” “Was this really happening to Angela and I?” “How was she going to hold up?”....

Laying in that bed I had time to review my life... And I don’t know how to describe it... but a holy anger came over me... I knew God had called me to reach others for the sake of the Kingdom of God - I knew that I hadn’t even began to scratch the surface of what He had planned for me - and yet here I lay... put on a ‘time-out’.

I never gave up...simply because I knew that the testimony God was building up in me had not come to completion - and I’m not done now either...

Our little boy is battling for his life.

Yet he has no idea how many hundreds, if not thousands of people are lifting him up in prayer around the world.

He has no idea how many people his story is touching.

He has no idea that in the spiritual realm there is a battle taking place between Heaven and hell. And how the prayers and inspiration given by his little life are empowering the angels of heaven to fight even harder on the frontlines for lives around the world that, until now, may have never really known the love and grace that Christ can offer to this world.

We are not in an easy place today - but we are not alone - we have incredible doctors watching over Bronson - but most of all have the Great Physician protecting his little life. It’s very easy to question and ask where God is through all of this turmoil - and whether we would be in the desert or on the mountain top, we are blessed to have the life we have and for that I thank my Lord, Jesus.

We have accepted that his life is what it is because people need to know that God doesn’t respond to religious ritual - He doesn’t respond to money being thrown at a cause - He responds to the simple faith of a child - and today that preaches to me.

We got a note from a very good friend who read Psalm 107 and passed it along to us... I’d encourage you to do the same...

Right now I feel so full of grace and faith... I’m listening to an amazing song from an old friend, Phil Aud called ‘Preach to Me’. You can find this song on iTunes and I’d highly suggest to spend the 0.99 cents... it will change your life.

God is teaching us so much with each hour that passes by... now if you will excuse me... I need to go play some music next to my little boy.

10:17pm - Preach to me

Tomorrow my brother is talking about claiming our inheritance... So many people miss out on their God-given inheritance... consider this for a moment...

Song and lyrics by Phil Aud (buy the song... very good... get it on iTunes - Phil Aud, Preach to Me)

He was 23 she was 21

Left the job for a parsonage with a 13 month old son

So he could preach and say

God took my sins away

and he could do the same today...for all who would believe

Their hearts were full of faith, their pockets full of change

Their home was full of joy with a baby on the way

Their church half full of saints, who love to sing and pray

And how he loved to hear them say...you preach to me.

The children soon grew up and they went to Sunday school

And they learned how to play and they learned the Golden Rule

They made their parents proud, when they would sing aloud

Songs about the love of God, and how they loved Him too

Oh, he lived for the moments like these

Oh, but nothing compared to the morning his son said to him

“Dad today you preached to me”

Now 18 years had past as his heaven he would boast

Until the morning that his wife was diagnosed

Six months so the doctor’s said

Four months later she was dead

The question wouldn’t leave his head...

....“Where are you God?”

Things went from bad to worse on a Sunday afternoon

He saw it in his son when he walked into the room

Dad for years I’ve heard ya say, trust in God, it’ll be okay

I know he took he took your sins away...but he took away my mom

Four bedroom house and all alone

His daughter calls him on the phone

“How’s it goin’?”

“I dunno”

Is all that he could say

He tries to pray, he tries to cry

But there’s no tears left in his eyes

His faith is feeling just as dry but the same as yesterday

Church attendance stays the same, he thinks about it ev’ry day

He feels just like a cast away, staring at the sea

One prayer left and so he prays, “You know this is my darkest days, so send somebody down my way cause I need someone...to preach to me...”

At first that Sunday seemed just like the one before

Until the moment that his son walked through the door

the final prayer the final hymn the people left the lights were dimmed

and then his son walks up to him

Things haven’t been the same since the day mom passed away

I found it hard to trust and I found it hard to pray

But dad don’t give up on me, or God of faith or destiny

Or dreams you had at 23 Cause you still preach to me

Oh, the tears run both of his cheeks

Oh, he searched for the right words, smiled and started to speak...

“son today you preached to me”

I'm so tired tonight... we are glad we have a home with love and laughter to come to here in Brooklin (north whitby). Today I sat beside my son playing the best worship songs I could find... Darlene Zchech, Phil Wickham, David Crowder Band, Chris Tomlin, and of course... Phil Aud.

I wanted him to hear words that offer life all around him...

But what I found today was that this little guy was speaking to me and so many other people... It's no surprise to me that God uses the weakest among us to accomplish the work of His Kingdom...

- he used a stutterbug like Moses to lead the people of Israel out of slavery...

- he used a guy like David...smallest of his tribe to become the greatest King of Israel...

- he used a young woman, Mary to protect the Christ that would save the world...

- he used a religious leader who wanted nothing more than to wipe the earth free of 'Christians' to write much of the New Testament...

- And now he uses our baby boy Bronson to change the world in 2011. So today many people around the world are reading about the strength of this little boy. They see that his mom and dad won't give up, knowing the odds because of the faith they have in a living Christ.

I'm so thankful for the letters I've received and to hear how this story has moved you... but it's no surprise to me that you are moved... it's built in us to be moved by the love and the grace of God... We were made to walk in the love and grace God created for us... sometimes we need to be reminded of that.

Angela and I are blessed to know the love of God in our lives... Some of us have had it tough and feel that there isn't much love left to receive from God...

...But I think of Job...

A guy that had it all... only to see it all taken away... and he never gave up... he continued to trust in God, trust that God only had good things for him, that he would prosper him (Jer. 29.11)... And so God was faithful to that promise... and we see Job restored and then some.

I'm so glad to see how many people have been moved by our story... but you were made that way... you were made to respond to the love of God... I hope you give Him a chance...

I couldn't imagine going through this without faith beyond the grave... some see Christ as a good teacher... some see him as a prophet... but I like C.S Lewis' thoughts on that...

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say.

A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher.

He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to. ... Now it seems to me obvious that He was neither a lunatic nor a fiend: and consequently, however strange or terrifying or unlikely it may seem, I have to accept the view that He was and is God."

So much can happen in this life time... if we don't have hope beyond the grave then what do we have?

Christ made good on this promise when he rose from the dead on the 3rd day... And it's our faith in a man, no a Christ...no a God who makes good on His word... And his word to me is that he will give me and my family long life and show us his salvation... THIS is our inheritance... and I'm claiming it in Jesus name...

I hope you don't take this as me preaching... it's just a way for me to get my thoughts on paper. thanks for reading... it's 10:40... time for bed...

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About Me

I'm a father, a husband, and a cancer survivor. Over the past five years I've fought cancer and won, got married, I have two beautiful children, one of which has also won his battle against cancer.
Thanks for taking the time to read.